Congrats, you’ve finished the first map! Hopefully it didn’t provide much trouble, because the real game begins now. The boss models that perilous ruins will be built upon as bosses become more mobile and start hitting a LOT harder. This new map will also introduce the first RAID mission, which brings bigger parties (And more death…).

Bosses will start to become more diverse, and sometimes different characters will have a slightly different way of handling them.

NOTE: You will no longer be able to do an infinite amount of runs like you were able to in Perilous Ruins. Boat trips will now cost tokens; there is a guide in this forum that already covers how to efficiently use them, and I recommend you read it so you can take full advantage of your tokens.

ONTO THE BOSS:

New map, new enemies, new traps, and a little bit of foreshadowing to battles that are soon to come! Ah, it’s nice to be out of those ruins.

Short mission, only 2 areas, and a boss that isn’t far from what you’ve seen before. His attacks are fairly static and do not seek, so you can easily just run around him and smash away. This mission serves more as to introduce the new map and give you a brief glimpse of the main boss of Hoarfrost, so it is not much harder than the first mission of Perilous Ruins.

Southern Rock Cliff

Repeat of the first mission. Come on now…let’s not start this again. The boss has similar patterns as the first, with an added attack that is a 360 spin attack with the axe with a second swing afterwards. This is another “Get away from the boss” attack, but it doesn’t hit hard enough to merit any worry. Just complete this mission to get enough BP to unlock the next.Western Ice Passage

Oh hey, the generic ranged boss with bad aim! Fun!

Jokes aside, this boss is not your ordinary “i r haz cross aiz herp derp” ranged boss; his attacks are fairly accurate and he has a sneeze attack that keeps you from sprinting for a short period of time. Each character will have a slightly different way of handling this guy.

LANN: I hate to break it to you Lann users, but you will probably have the hardest time here. You will still be missing a lot of your most important smashes (Gliding fury, Double Crescent) and slip dash won’t be horribly reliable yet. The best thing you can do is stick close to the boss and attempt to time your slip dashes with his ranged attack, and attack in between each shot.

FIONA: Fiona’s will have an easier time on this boss. If you have your preferences set so that you can control your attack direction, you can set up your Amaranth kick by attacking around the boss before turning the kick itself against him. He tends to miss when you do this, and the attack has a high chance of knocking him down. If you have a hard time with this, you can always resort to Blossom Blow (LLR) instead. His sneeze attack is not a smash, so it is easily defended.

Evie: This boss will be pitifully easy for Evie. If you have learned anything from the easy bosses of Perilous ruins, it’s that the “Magic arrow + Hop to the left/right” will keep you from getting hit by most bosses. This is true in the case of this boss; it seems that hopping to the side on this boss is like Kryptonite to Superman, ’cause he will be unable to hit you.

Meet the Cave Spider

………..Seriously?

I’m sorry, this is a totally pitiful mission. The boss is so easy that once you’re finished absolutely annihilating them, you’ll be asking yourself “Wait, what? That’s it? REALLY?” I don’t even know why I’m writing a guide to it, it just seems like the most pointless mission in the game; it’s as if it only exists to give you extra AP and a bad armor set that seems to double the size of Evie’s boobs.

…..Ooooooh, I see. Devcat, you sly dog.

Another Slingshot

Thanks Reilly. Your obsession with toys now forces us to do another mission for an annoying boss. Really, I appreciate it. Douche.

For the most part, both of these bosses are the same as the one in Western Ice Passage; in fact, one of them is the EXACT SAME THING. Same name and everything.

The problem is now there’s two of them. They both are fairly accurate, and the red brother has a screeching “OMG RUN” attack that has an annoyingly large splash range. If you’re going at this solo, it would be wise to set them up similarly to the bosses in the “Revenge” mission in Perilous ruins; one boss behind the other, so the ranged attack will hit the one in front of him and stun him.

If you’re having trouble doing this, just grab a party and take them out one by one. Your choice.

Final Slingshot

Reilly. I hate you. So. Much.

Because of this crazy old man, you get to say hello to the two brothers again, along with their Big Brother. The Big Brother is considerably more annoying; he fires 3 shots at a time, he sneezes similarly to the first one, and has the screeching “OMG RUN” splash attack of the second one. Don’t get stuck against the wall with this guy, he will spam that attack over and over again until you’re dead.

If you’re doing this mission for the first time, I strongly recommend you go with a party; 2 people handle the big brother, as he will be the most annoying. The other two can take the other two brothers solo, as they are not as hard and don’t have as much health.

Fomorian Order

This boss is a little deceptive. He doesn’t have much health, nor does he move really fast, but his attacks are quite annoying. All of them are AoE sweeps that are difficult to avoid, and he has a chain attack where he goes absolutely nuts and charges in one direction in a flurry of attacks. The good news is that after he goes nuts, he stops to catch his breath and gives you a perfect opportunity to get a few good smashes in.

Otherwise, again, he’s not horribly difficult. Just sneak in to get a quick smash, and get away before he swings around with an AoE sweep.

Frost Stones

Interesting boss. He’s hard to read, and has a wide variety of attacks that can be a little annoying. He’s not hard enough to merit me posting images of his setups, but I’ll narrow them down.

1. His normal smash. He rears back and opens up his mouth and smashes directly down on you. Not hard to avoid, just use whatever dodge you have and move to the side.

2. He starts to wave around, and goes into a large spin that knocks away everyone that’s close. The setup for this attack is rather slow, so it’s a sure sign that you should get away.

3. He slams into the ground in front of him, digs down a little bit, and pops up again to throw a large chunk of ice. It’s hard to tell who he’s gonna throw it at, so when he does do this, start SPRINTING around him; this will keep you safest, and his throw will always land right behind you.

Keep all these in mind and he won’t be a very difficult boss.

Brynn’s Research

He’s a weird boss that feels almost incomplete; don’t ask me why, I can’t explain it. Just seems that most of his moves are fairly clumsy and he doesn’t have very many of them. Most of them (2….) involve drinking some unknown potion that he seems to have an infinite amount of.

Then a random single swing that doesn’t seem to have a big range of attack at all.

…..Yeah. Easy boss, just knock him out and move on.

Source of the Rumor

This mission is…rather strange. You think it would be difficult, but it’s deceptively easy. It takes two bosses that you’ve faced before (Older brother slingshot person and single axe-wielding kobold) and adds a new boss that’s essentially just a bigger dual axe wielding kobold.

The only difference with these bosses is that they have a strange animation added to their patterns; almost like the flinch for a little bit, cough up some unknown liquid (Vomit?) and stagger themselves for a few seconds. I recommend a party for this, but if you want to solo it, I doubt it’ll present much trouble. Just make sure you have some kind of boss shield for the slingshot boss and you’ll be fine.

Kobold Chief

From the opening scene from spotting this boss, he looks a lot more menacing than he really is. It’s like he wears all that armor to compensate for something…who knows.

Either way, most of his attacks are fairly short range, so you can take advantage of your longer range smashes. There are only 2 animations that you should be worried about.

1. When he drops both arms to the ground and turtle. Depending on where you (Or your party) is standing, he can do a number of things from this position.

A. He’ll dig his claws into the ground and swipe twice around him.
B. He’ll sit there for a little while, but if you get too close the spikes on his back will damage you.
C. He’ll just get back up and do nothing.

2. He rears back his right arm and smashes into the ground. He will do it once or twice, and it deals quite a bit of damage along with giving you a bleeding effect that will deal damage to you over time.

Exercise a little caution and watch out for this warning signs and you’ll take him down quickly.

NOTE: This boss has a breakoff, which is his shield. Easiest way to get this is to spear it while he’s walking towards you, or knock it off with a smash skill.

Dethrone the White Tyrant

And here we are. The very first raid of the game. This is a big jump in difficulty, and is a small glimpse into how bosses will behave later in the game. Because of how difficult a time people have on this boss for their first time facing it, I’ve presented a few images of his setups. With bigger bosses, it’s essential to recognize boss patterns, because getting hit even once can end up spelling death.

NOTE: This is assuming you want to do this solo and not rely on spearlocking, because face it, spearlocking is boring.

This is the attack you will see the most of. He’ll do this animation then do a small swipe forward, which deals a powerful smash along with an add-on that prevents you from doing crits for a minute. His easiest attack to dodge, and provides you a good opportunity to get a quick smash in.

NOTE: This boss has a breakoff, which is the savage eye; when he is recovering from this attack is the best time to hit it with a spear.

His other most common attack. When you see this wind up, you want to GET OUT OF THE WAY. He lunges out very quickly, and the range is deceivingly far. What this attack does present is a nice opportunity to get a smash in, because it has a slow recovery.

BE WARNED WHEN ATTACKING HIS SIDE. He has a high chance of doing a sideways swipe, which is extremely difficult to dodge. Best thing to do is get in a small smash and get away as fast as you can to avoid this from happening.

Whenever you see him doing this, he’s going to swipe side to side in a forward motion. This attack moves in a static direction, so it gives you ample opportunity to set up a powerful smash. Be warned though; if you get hit by the first swipe, it’s very likely you will get hit by the second one as well.

When he gets to his last bar of health, he will start roaring and swiping around randomly. While this is easy to dodge, you do not want to get hit by it, as it will also give you a bleeding effect that will take your health down to nothing. Just keep hitting in between his attacks and this boss will fall shortly.

Prepare for Counterattack

Right. After an epic encounter with the polar bear, you get to face a bunch of easy bosses you faced before. Nice….

Anyways, if you have trouble with any of these bosses, just look back to their respective guides. The only difference here is that you have a time limit to kill each one until you get to the Kobold Chief.